Hugh Grant came to New College and downed alcohol from a shoe with the rugby players

Hugh Grant, who studied English at Oxford in the early eighties, showed he can be down to earth when he was filmed earlier this week enjoying quite a few drinks with students from New, his old college.

Grant received a 2:1 from New in 1982, having won the Galsworthy scholarship to attend. While at Oxford, he was a member of the Piers Gaveston Society, famous for its hedonistic parties, and he starred in his first film in 1982, called Privilege, produced by OUFF, (the Oxford University Film Foundation, and acted in a touring production of Twelfth Night, financed by OUDS (the Oxford University Dramatic Society), of which he was a member.

The Notting Hill star, who has campaigned for Hacked Off, the campaign for a free and accountable press, came to New to give a talk about press rights, and later enjoyed the New College bar with New rugby players.

A video, now deleted circulated on Twitter shows students chanting: “I’ve never seen Hugh Grant do a shoe”, while he downs a drink out of one of his shoes in the usual Oxford tradition, and the students cheer the actor on.

Another video shows Grant drinking from two bottles at once while students cheer.